production operator

associate scientist

operator

specialist

packer

West-Pharmaceutical-Services

Where to start? Well, let’s start with the good.
 The best thing about working at West Pharmaceutical is the money and benefits. The pay is good and above average for the industry. The benefits are better than most employers in the area. You will make good money while you are here,  But you will earn every penny of it. 

Now to the bad part of working for West Pharmaceutical:
--You will be working obscene amounts of overtime. 6 and 7 days a week, every week. Lots of forced overtime. There is no work/life balance with this company. And since you have to take time off to do everyday things, like dr. visits and family things, that means you will be working a lot of those overtime hours for straight time. And also, because they are always behind on orders, you are limited to when you can use your vacation days to take off.

--This is a physically exhausting job. This is a big plant and there is a lot of equipment here. You will be working in all sorts of temperature extremes, tight spaces, etc. Large equipment to small, antique to modern and everything in between. Documentation is sketchy on a lot of the machines. Some equipment was built in house, or may be from some vendor overseas, so getting someone on the phone who can help you troubleshoot it is often impossible.  The maintenance department is permanently short staffed, so a lot of the time you are running behind the whole shift. 

--Poor morale. Partly due to the high turnover, Partly due to the forced overtime and Partly due to oppressive and strict management. You can and will get ‘occurences’ for just about anything. 8 of those and your fired. Even family emergencies aren’t a valid excuse to miss work. Also, since there are no sick days , if you call in sick, you will get an occurrence.  It takes a calendar year for an occurrence to come off your record.  

--There are camera’s everywhere in the plant, except the bathrooms. You are always being watched.    

 --Petty management and policies. In one case, the managers actually walked out on the production floor during the presidential cell phone alert test, in order to try and catch people with their cell phones sounding off, so they could write them up. You aren't allowed to have cell phones on the production floor.
Another example of their vindictive behavior was a company picnic that management had planned for a Saturday. When enough people didn’t sign up to go(cause everybody wants an off day), management decided to take those who did sign up, somewhere nicer and force everyone else to work that Saturday. Yeah, that’s a true story. 
 
--This company also does random drug tests. So there is that to look forward too.

--Extremely disorganized management structure. You often end up doing the same job multiple times because a different manager will want it done a different way. There is no organized chain of command, so you get conflicting orders all the time. It’s very frustrating to have to do the same job 2 or 3 times because there is no communication between departments.

--Also, you are constantly moving machinery around on the production floor. The reason is they believe it helps production, but of course, it never does. The downside to this for maintenance people is that moving the equipment is a big job. You have to run new air lines, water lines, electric, steam , etc.  Sometimes you will move a huge machine only a few feet. And you do this all the time. I was amazed at how often they wanted equipment moved around and how it resulted in absolutely no boost in anything. It’s just a lot of pointless work.

Like I said earlier, the pay and benefits are good, but it is not a fun or even enjoyable place to work. It's a big, impersonal company. There are lots and lots of rules. Lots and lots of bosses and a work schedule that consumes your whole life.

Worked at West for 11 months. Depending what department you get placed in as a manufacturer, it's fairly simple. All you do is place a rubber sheet into a machine. For 12 hours. It does become monotonous. However, if you are looking for career advancement, you've come to the wrong place. Management seems like they don't want to train people for different areas and when they finally do, they claim to do by seniority. They don't. They kind of do whatever they feel is best. Which is usually wrong. But I would be liar if I didn't mention that West offers to pay for higher education. You must be employed at West for one year in order to get the benefit. You can only go to school for something that will benefit the company and you are locked in. If you quit while you are still in school, you will be responsible for paying for your education. Which does make sense. Still, schooling of any kind is expensive and if you are willing to work at West for the next four to six years to better your education, more power to you!

West does offer great health insurance and you have access to paid time off after 90 days of employment. (I believe. My memory is a little hazy about that.) They do offer paid time off with covid however, the company follows CDC guidelines.

Also, be prepared to go directly to nights when Management feels you are ready to do so.

*a typical day at work*
They are generally monotonous and straightforward. It is a factory so what you did yesterday is what you will be doing tomorrow.

*what you learned*
It depends on the department you work in; Maintenance has the greatest potential for continued education. The remaining departments teach you how to operate heavy machinery that is specific to the jobs you are required to perform. Nothing more.

*Management*
Management is variable. If you are personable and know how to network and sell yourself (aka BSing) it is almost impossible to be terminated regardless of job performance, or lack thereof. If you are more reserved and introverted your only option is to be a quality employee and fly under the radar.

*workplace culture*
This is also variable, it mostly depends on which department you are in and which shift you work.

*the hardest part of the job*
Physical demands. The jobs themselves are not intellectual. There is a lot to learn right away but after about six months you have learned most everything you need and can do your job on autopilot. From that point on it is just physically demanding.

*The most enjoyable part of the job*
Simply put the paycheck and benefits. It is a factory job so no one does it for the glamor and societal status. You do it for the paycheck and the pay is pretty good.

Corporate doesn't value this shop at all.
Area managers are a problem here; all are long time employees that micromanage and keep everything hemmed up tight, so there is no room for advancement. Pay is about 20% low for this type of work in this market.
Some employees are 30+ years in and would not be employable outside this location in this field. They don't want change and are content just coasting along and drawing a paycheck and are not motivated to tow the line. Morale is low because the managers refuse to manage the long term employees bringing the shop down and the result is a toxic atmosphere for anyone new coming in. Newer employees want change and innovation, but shop culture prevents it.
Shop environment is someplace in the 1990's. Equipment is old and antiquated although some new machinery is coming in.

It is a no pressure environment.
This company only values college educated employees.
Bonus structure is too slanted toward the company for anyone to be motivated by it.
Overall it's a great place if you have no aspirations of moving up and are content with the status quo pay raises once a year.

I've had a very positive experience working here. The company provides a supportive team environment, strong training, and clear expectations for employees. I especially appreciated the opportunity to grow, learn new skills, and work alongside a reliable and hardworking team. 

The workplace is fast-paced, but it's well organized, and management does a good job maintaining standards and supporting employees. I've built valuable experience here, especially in teamwork, communication, and maintaining high-quality work. 

The only reason I am exploring other opportunities is to transition into a more office-based role. While there are opportunities  for growth within the company, those positions are not currently available. This is simply a personal career shift, not a reflection of the company itself. 

Overall, I would highly recommend this company to anyone looking for a stable and supportive work environment. 

Work Environment Concerns:

	•	Leadership Presence: Shift leads and supervisors often remain in their offices, spending significant time on their phones rather than engaging with the team, When they are asked to assist, it sometimes feels like they’re reluctant or inconvenienced by the request.
	•	Communication Gaps: Upper management rarely interacts with frontline employees, leading to a disconnect and a lack of understanding about the day-to-day challenges faced by the team. This lack of communication contributes to a sense of isolation and disengagement among employees.
	• Policy Instability: Frequent changes to policies create confusion, especially when made by those who don’t fully understand procedures like line clear. This often results in unnecessary complications, making tasks harder for employees.

	•	Work-Life Balance Issues: The work schedule is highly imbalanced. While the short week is appreciated for allowing decent time off, the long week, which requires five  days of work, is mentally and physically exhausting. By the end of the long week, employees often feel burned out, making it difficult to maintain motivation and productivity.

The job itself isn’t hard. If you show competence, they will train you in all areas of the factory floor but with that comes you doing more work on a daily basis than others while they might even make more money by being senior to you. Management is petty and extremely gossipy (less professional than the operators, setup and maintenance personnel). It’s impossible to get days off most of the time because every year the same (senior) people get first dibs for the whole month in January to put in their vacation for the entire year and they only allow one person off a day. After January, the rest of the people working there are allowed to put their vacation in. There’s a lot of families that work at this company and if you have family there, you get better job opportunities in higher paying positions  than those that have more experience for a position in that field but don’t have family or friends there. 
The day-to-day life isn’t too bad. This company is extremely serious about breaks so the work day goes by pretty quick once you get all your breaks in. 


The pay is good and bonuses are provided quarterly if certain goals are hit. Supervisors are typically willing to assist you if needed and support you when you are striving to reach a certain goal. Vacation time is generous and grows depending on the length of time you are employed until a max out point. The job itself becomes monotonous however and you may find yourself spending well over a year before a new skill is learned once you become trained in all testing areas in your lab/facility. Occasionally I felt like many decisions I or coworkers made when problems occurred on an off-shift needed to be discussed with managers, even in the middle of the night. Mangers loved to micro-manage and did not seem to have tremendous faith in their analysts. Overall I do not recommend working here if you are looking to be challenged daily or make a tremendous difference. However, it is a good position for someone who simply is looking for a decent wage until retirement. 

Honestly the pay is decent for a job requiring no experience compared to other companies. It is tough for compounders because it is a physical job and requires a lot of heavy lifting. It's actually a little dangerous. The management is terrible and disconnected from their production workers. They write you up for anything they can make up. Procedures change weekly and they expect you to keep up with them. Management shows favoritism. The break room is far from the production area like two minutes away not including the walk back and the time it takes to put on your PPE but they want you back on the floor in 30 minutes exactly, so they want you to cut your break 5 minutes short so you can be back in your area on time. The compounding manager will say something is ok to do one day and the next week he'll write you up for it and says he never said that. And the over time there is crazy like insane, they could mandatory you over time every day if they want to but the most I've seen was three days mandatory plus every other Saturday. Oh and the company bonuses are disrespectful, I've seen a 1.3% bonus and they are done quarterly instead of yearly so it's smaller. 

• Analysis of business requirements, determining organizational structures and classifying business units / locations as company codes, business areas, and profitability center.
• Implemented various SAP functionalities and enhancements that were not included in initial implementation e.g. Park and Post Process, Availability Control on Internal Order Budget, Financial Statement Version etc.
• Configured the system to handle partial payments, exchange rate differences, payment advices, payment proposal/payment schedule, payment run, payment media, and interest calculation.
• Identified to use Profit center accounting to create P&L and Balance sheet statements on key business metrics for predefined areas of responsibility.
• Identified Internal Orders that has to be settled to Cost Centers at the end of the period.
• Maintained a settlement profile and settled the AUC asset to a fixed asset for capitalization.
• Test build of custom objects in development, testing before moving to Production using test scripts covering test scenarios.
• Coordinated with users for User Acceptance Testing and completion.

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